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The National Gallery, naked
It has been a long four and a half years since two architectural icons of a lost age went into hiding, cloaked for a large part in a dark shroud. That was to permit a huge and costly transformation of...
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The glow in the park
The quiet green surroundings of Fort Canning Hill provides the setting for the Pinacothèque de Paris’ home away from home, in a building whose best features the museum seems to have brought out,...
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The vermilion bridge in the naval base
The vermilion bridge, of a style and colour that is distinctively Japanese, stands almost garishly out of place in the expansive garden of an equally generously sized colonial house. Set in an area...
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Monday not so blue
It has been a long while since we a celebration of the new day as spectacular as the one seen on Monday. Colours of the new day, Monday, 18 May 2015, 6.48 am as seen from the beach at Kg Wak...
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So, what’s next for the Rail Corridor?
Almost four years have passed since the rumble of the last train, we hear new noises finally being made over the Rail Corridor. Also known as the Green Corridor, calls were made by nature and heritage...
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The celebration returns to Pulau Ubin
Every year around Vesak Day, Pulau Ubin comes alive as the Pulau Ubin Fo Shan Teng Tua Pek Kong Temple (乌敏岛佛山亭大伯公庙) holds a series of festivities to celebrate the Tua Pek Kong festival. It is one of...
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RAF Seletar’s last barrack block
A part of Singapore that has seen a transformation in recent times is Seletar. The area was once occupied by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Seletar station or RAF Seletar, which at its establishment in...
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An ‘English country manor’ in Singapore’s north once visited by the Queen
From its position some 90 feet above what once was the southern fringes of the His Majesty’s Naval Establishments in Singapore, the grand and architecturally rather interesting building we know today...
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The granite island alive
Pulau Ubin, the granite island, comes alive for a few days around the full moon of the fourth month of the Chinese calendar, when the celebrations in honour of the Taoist deity Tua Pek Kong are held....
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What lurks in the depths of the oceans
Yet another great exhibition, The Deep, has opened at the ArtScience Museum. Running from over the last weekend, the exhibition takes us on an exploration of a part of the world to which few have...
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The fire station at the 8th mile
One of those things almost every young boy dreams of becoming is a fireman. I had myself harboured ambitions of becoming one at different points during my childhood; the inspiration coming from picture...
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The art and science of bringing an ogre to life
Animation has allowed many a tale to be spun in which the unlikeliest of heroes take centre-stage. This is especially so in the last two decades with the availability of the computing power required to...
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Reliving the good old days
Pulau Ubin, the Granite Island, is possibly the last place left in Singapore in which we are able to rediscover how life might once have been. The island, which provided material with which the early...
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Keeping the fire burning …
One of the last two dragons of Singapore, the Thow Kwang dragon kiln, was brought to life over the weekend, its flames fed by a team of potters and volunteers working through the night. The use of such...
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The sports complex at Turnhouse Road
Lying silently and somewhat forgotten is a set of structures that is seemingly out of place in an area dominated by buildings of the former Royal Air Force Changi station (RAF Changi). An award winning...
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The long road to Somapah
Excerpts of an interview with Mr Lim Jiak Kin: From the late 1950s to the 1970s, I had a relative who lived in Mata Ikan. This was close to Somapah Village where my mother’s best friend lived. Her...
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The naval powers collide at Changi
Every two years in May, the international maritime defence exhibition, IMDEX Asia, comes to town and offers a chance not only to catch up with the going-ons in the region’s naval developments, but also...
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The launch of Independence
I found myself back at a place from my past, not so much to take a look back as I often am inclined to do, but to look at what is to come – the beginnings of a new generation of naval patrol vessels,...
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The monster guns of the east
Tucked away in a forgotten corner of Changi is a reminder of one of three monster guns of the east installed as part of the coastal defences to protect the island’s naval base from an attack by sea....
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A journey to the west
Thought of as an essential transport link in the plan to transform the wild and undeveloped west into the industrial heart of Singapore, the Jurong railway line, which was launched in 1966, was one...
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